The analysis of long texts with the help of artificial intelligence has made great progress in recent years.

"In the meantime, AI algorithms can automatically read and understand long documents," says Gero Gunkel from the Zurich Insurance Group.

In a multi-year project, Gunkel and his team developed a "digital analyst" that will enable employees to find answers to their questions from large amounts of documents such as contracts or patents - without having to manually search through long contract texts.

The AI ​​also recognizes "in a 40- or 50-page contract document connections between the first page and the third appendix".

In order to get a general understanding of the text, the algorithm read the entire Wikipedia database and was trained with information from 5000 books.

The Zurich Group uses an approach that allows algorithms to be used for various content - from the analysis of contract texts to sporting events.

However, Gunkel does not share the concern that the widespread use of such intelligent solutions could lead to mass unemployment among knowledge workers.

The AI ​​will be able to answer many questions, but not every one.

In areas such as creativity or customer contact in particular, people are still unbeatable.

Therefore, the AI ​​​​will change the job profile in many professions - away from summary and documentation tasks and towards creative problem solving.


The episode is part of our podcast "Artificial Intelligence".

He explores the questions of what AI can do, where it is used, what it has already changed and what contribution it can make in the future.

With Peter Buxmann and Holger Schmidt, the FAZ brought two proven AI experts on board for the podcast: Both research and teach the potential of AI and its effects on the economy and work at the Technical University of Darmstadt.

Peter Buxmann holds the chair for business informatics and has been dealing with the applications of AI, digital transformation and data-based business models for many years.

His podcast partner Holger Schmidt is a digital economist, speaker and author.

His core topics are AI, platform economy and digital business models.

In each episode, the two hosts take up a new aspect of artificial intelligence, explain connections and provide precise classifications.